Development of Novel Actuating Mechanisms for Smart Artificial Flowers

Abstract

We present novel actuating mechanisms for smart artificial flowers.Artificial flowers are static decorations, but if we make them movable, this will make them more lively and entertaining.The statement "smart" represents the flower that is able to interact with the surrounding and to show dynamic visual effects such as the blooming of flower, the swaying of stem just like light tracking of the sunflower.The flower can be executed with the pre-set program or be remote control by using smart phone or computer.The smart flower is consisted of actuating mechanisms, Arduino controllers, and sensors.In this paper, we focused on the movement of the flower.Instead of using conventional actuating mechanisms to actuate the flower, we use shape memory alloy (SMA) as actuators to avoid complication, large volume and noise generation of the components.Two types of the actuating mechanisms are designed, one is for onedirection bending, and the other is for multi-directions bending.The performances of the novel actuating mechanisms are evaluated through the experiment.The prototype of the smart flowers have been developed and can be realized in various application such as robotic flowers, flower lamps, fashion clothing accessories, and decorations in home or offices.